LATIN AMERICA: No to Cuba in Quito

In diplomacy, as in horse racing, sure
things sometimes end up as also-rans. Before the start of last week's
meeting in Quito of foreign ministers representing the Organization of
American States, several Latin American diplomats were confidently
passing the word that the OAS would vote to end the diplomatic and
economic quarantine it slapped on Cuba in 1964. They were wrong. On the
balloting, three nations (Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile) voted no, six
(including the U.S.) abstained, and twelve were in favortwo less than
the two-thirds majority necessary for passage.